Telstra
Reviews and Complaints

14 July 2023 - I have tried many, many times at least 15 times to access my online email account with Telstra.

The problem I have forgotten my password I tried every password I know and I am unable to login. I have tried every option also Create a Telstra ID. This did not work because it requires a password.

I have requested to changed the password by doing this I need an email from Telstra to allow me to reset the password. I have not received an email from Telstra. This is the problem I cannot access my email to reset the password because my email box is full.

The issue is my email box is full and I am unable to access to clear out the old emails. This is the first time I have had a problem.

I am currently in Mexico it is a problem to call the help desk to fix the problem with my password and emails being I am overseas at the moment.

This is very import to receive my emails. Please may I ask of your prompt assistance to grant me access to me emails so I am able to clean out the inbox.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Kind regards,

Anita Witt

[protected]@bigpond.com

Ph: [protected]

I have a Galaxy S22 ultra that is faulty Telstra is aware of the problem

on Telstra centre 132200 line case numbers 4483801 [protected] [protected] said we can have a Exhange and upgrade at no cost, while the Telstra shop in Midland gate said we have to pay $154 up front but we get reimbursed in 3-5 days this is not acceptable. i am not chasing up my money, these people work for the same company but have different rules,

We cannot talk to a human its all in a text message, what has happen to customer service there is none, we live in a world of greedy people

Big business that don't care these type of organizations, cause mental health problems not to mention you have to wait online for hours to get through

Date of Promotion 11th October to the 24 October my purchase was 20th October Redemption period 11th October to 24 November my redemption from was completed before the 11th November. E-mail from Samsung gave my claim no. AUG20221108100823-159 and required Proof of Purchase showing date of Purchase, purchase product and retailer/reseller/name of the service provider where the product was purchased from even though this was under the Samsung/Telstra Gift redemption offer, purchase any Samsung Galaxy S-series /Z flip 4 bonus watch 5 telstra wuld nly supply electronic proof of waranty with all the phone details and shipment date but not the puchase date or my name. I bought it on a telstra plan so no onvoice was raised and no welcome e-mail sent to me ony my bill which I have paid.

Disgusted at the amount of time it takes to get through to Customer Service on the phone. Voice mail message falsely claims that you can call upto 4 times faster through the app to speak to an agent. The app is counterintuitive and after spending 30 minutes going through dozens of click and options the only option available is to chat or message some bot.

I wish that money fraudulently charged to my Telstra account be refunded, Total amount as at the 2nd October 2017 $128.91, i would also like payement for good will. as i have had to spend quite a bit of my time trying to get this refund.
Please attend to this matter within the next 7 days. This matter will be ssent to Comsumer Affairs and the Ombudsman if no reply within the next 7 days.

Thank you
Maria Edwards

Last year, we found our phone calls were dropping, all the time, and service went off line for hours at a time with absolutely no warning or accouncement.

Could not log into billing APP on iphone, and account number allocation and IDS were changed without notification, and login access was unavailable for over 1 year despite repeatedly reporting the issues.

Shared DATA on sign up but not allocated to services and therefore resulted in over billing despite assurance this would not happen, $4000 plus over charged. Credit promised for period were the call drop outs and call quality issues, and APP login issues were experienced, however this never came through and the person who promised it forgot about it and denied promising it.

Raised complaint to TIO and a gentleman from resolutions called back and promised to fix it but never heard back from them again, despite us following up numerous times.

Its feels almost as if staff rotating or position change happens on purpose to discourage the customers to diligently report the issue and resolve it. Operators do not fix problems in a timely manner since they are incompetant and change so quickly and without leaving sufficient notes, that every time a new person comes to take over the issue it has to be re-explained again.

No Accountability and no will to resolve, and no anility to resolve quickly and swiftly, even though we spend person $300-400 per month on mobile bill with Telstra they do not seem to care.

Current issues first reported August 2016 - 1 year through and not fixed fully. Spend 100s working hours on the phone with no rebate or compensation.

Seriously not good enough.

Made payment to this AFL watch live, not realising that the Live Pass can only
be used in Australia.
I stay in Thailand for most of the year, and therefore I'm expecting a refund.
Payment made on 9th March 2017 to Telstra Corp. $89.99
Made complaint to Telstra 10th March, when I realised that AFL Live was useless to me in Thailand.
Telstra reference number, SR-[protected]
There has been no reply.

I am experiencing very poor customer service from Telstra. There seems to be a culture of terminating calls when customers are trying to get help and askquestions. They will create case incidents but noone will chase them up or they will call you once about it - if you don't answer they will close the case without your permission. I have had to ask to speak to a supervisor - response has been supervisor not available but leave your details and the supervisor will call you - on more than one occasion the supervisor has not called. These are serious issues as they do not allow customers to be heard and matters like bill enquires ( which legally Telstra must be seen as addressing) are not attended to. Telstra makes it very difficult to respond to an SMS they send or an email they send ( frequently it's a "no reply allowed" service). I can only think that Telstra would be so much more successful if a team would just address the customer service issues ( including taking seriously staff who breach the customer service policy - if they have one). Is the Board aware of what's happening at the frontline? There are so many customers complaining online and to the Ombudsman ( figures have been released that suggest Telstra keeps the Ombudsman very busy as there are so many complaints from customers).

Why do you adverise pre paid phones in the caterloge and you have none in stock.
That is false advertising and this happens a lot with woolies. The items in the caterlogue and not there or it is a differen t price. I am not happy with woolies.

I have twice sat at home, having taken time off from work, waiting for Telstra and the NBN. No calls or reasons.
Every time I phone the call centre they are very helpful and apologetic but can't give out the technician's name or contact number so I`m left in the dark as to why I am treated so unprofessionally.
I booked my appointment with the NBN for 8 JUly and Telstra on 10 July. Took the day off on 8 July for NBN but no-one came. No reason or phone calls. I just sat at home like a complete fool.
I phoned and the NBN technician came the following Saturday to install the NBN box. A Telstra Technician came the next week, left the modem/router on the fridge and told my family it can't be connected because NBN has to to something. He left a number and left. unfortunately the number was taken down wrongly or something but I couldn't contact Reece. And neither would the call centre give me his number. I found that the internet worked after finding the wireless card in the box. Nothing of their promises to connect one computer and give advice on the others. I still didn't have the NBN phone
I phoned the call centre and was promised high priority. No-one phoned back.
on 25 july Henry phoned to confirm my address. he also booked an appointment for 26 july between 1 and 5. I took time off and waited, yet again like a fool, and no-one came. called the call centre. very friendly, apologetic. They cant tell me why no-one came or give me the technicians name. wanted to book another appointment.
i am at wits end. How many times do I have to wait for them. No-one is accountable or contactable.

I had the miss-fourtune of being a Telstra customer while living in Melbourne. I have spent 18 painful months trying to sort out problems in service and billing, and after returning to the UK have endured a further 5 months of stupidity from the business who have continued to bill me on a closed account. Initially when we took out the service for phone, internet and foxtel they billed us for 4 months for internet twice per month. It took a number of calls and visits to the store, everytime I was promised it would be sorted out, every time nothing was done. FINALLY in store there was a Team Leader from the business out seeing what the customer queries were. he told me he was horrified at the level of billing issues we had. He did finally sort everything out and arrange a refund for us which by then was over $500. This was all between August - December 2012. We then look to leave Australia in July 2013, aware of the issues we would probably face we spoke to numerous advisors in store and on the phone to ensure that the account would be closed properly and billing would be done correctly. Even with all the work we did as customers to try and get the right information we were told different things everytime we spoke to an advisor. The day we left our house we were advised that our account was definitely closed and we had a final bill to pay which we would recieve in 2 weeks. We paid that bill promptly. What has happended after that is a complete joke and a reflection of how bad Telstra is. They have continued to bill us! Typical! I have sent complaints on the website which I receieve an email saying I will be contacted in 48 hours. I send another email 5 days after after no response. I finally do get a response which I have copied below. You would think that after this the account would be closed, but o no, that would be too easy. Today I have recieved yet another bill! What is the matter with this business, who runs it, why does no ones know what they are doing, why is every person you speak to wrong about the information they give and have no intellingence to escalte problems they cannot solve. WHAY ARE THERE SO MANY PROBLEMS? I have lived globally and have never experienced such a situation. I am now again waiting for Telstra to get in touch about this new bill to inform me of what they propose they will do, will I get compensation for my time... Probably Not!

Dear Iola,

Thank you for contacting Telstra.

I checked our records and found an email response sent dated 23/10/12 to verify your account details. My apologies if the response was not successfully received.

Iola, I am sorry if you are still receiving bills for your disconnected services. In order for us to check your account and make the necessary changes and bill adjustments, please reply with the following:

* Date of birth
* Contact Number (overseas)

In adherence to Privacy Policy, Telstra requires every customer to verify their identity using their date of birth prior to providing information or making changes to their account. This verification must be supplied by either the Legal Lessee of the account, or an authorised representative acting on behalf of the Legal Lessee. This procedure is followed to prevent information being given to an unauthorised third party.

Once we receive the above information, we can proceed with rectifying your account.

Furthermore, I have escalated your complaint and the reference number is SR 1-[protected].

If your matter is urgent, you may contact us at 13 22 00 and say ‘Complaint’.

Further information about our complaint handling process can be found on Telstra.com: http://www.telstra.com.au/help/contact/complaints/

I will anticipate your response, Iola.

Thank you and may you have a great weekend.

I have been a loyal customer with Telstra mobile for over 12 years. In this time i have experienced a fair few issues. The biggest issue I have had was when they all of a sudden took me off my $79 cap (which gave me a significant number of phone calls) and i had been using comfortably for 3 months and placed me on a $30 plan in error. After receiving an exceptionally large phone bill, and realising my plan had changed i tried to fix the issue, only to find the next month I had another large bill and a late fee for the remianing amount. This continued to happen month after month and was never fixed. I spent an hour a week for 4 or 5 months in a testra shop and another hour on the phone with them trying to sort out the issue. In this time my phone bill escalated to almost $10, 000, my phone was cut off several times, which meant heading to a pay phone to try and have it reconnected. The issue was finally resolved, however in more recent times i have now found myself to be continually upgrading to higher plans, as my phone bill continues to rise each month. Just recently after keeping to my cap for several months in a row i received a phone bill hundreds of dollars over what i was previously spending. Telstra had changed there call rate, and as my bills are sent to me via email i was never notified of this change. The business has given me nothing but trouble and a very low bank balance.

Dear Sir/Madam
I have a lot of problem with Telstra customer service in the last 2 years. Recent one is :They banned my home phone number from the access to override code. I hade that access till the May 2009 . In the May 2009 I moved to another Sydney Suburb (from Blacktown to Mount Druitt). I couldn’t keep my old number ( people from Telstra said to me), because of that I got new home phone number. Few weeks ago I have been registered to another company for international calls. When I tried to use that prefix (ex: 1414 0011 + country number+ city number + private number ) I have got message “The number which you called is not available from this service. Please call Telstra on number 13 22 00”. I rang the number 13 22 00 many times and people who are working there didn’t know what I’m talking about. I contacted the company which prefix I wanted to use. They said from they side everything is OK. After many try I wrote the complain to the Telstra complain department.. I got a call today – Tuesday 21/12/10 from lady called BARU from this department. She stated that she’s my case manager and understood my problem. Baru advised me to call the company which prefix I want to use and ask them to call Telstra. I said to her that another company doesn’t have anything with my home phone number. No one can’t talk with Telstra in behalf of me(Telstra didn’t allow me talk with them when my husband ‘s name was on the our Telstra bill only).
. Baru was kind of pushing me to call that company (Vitel) and ask them to talk with Telstra people about my problem with them. Baru asked me can she clos my case. For me it looked like she just wonted to get rid of me. People from another Company (Vitel) couldn’t believe that I got that advise from Telstra complain department.
I don’t know what to do. Over the phone they are useless, writing complain didn’t give me any result . Can you please advice me what to do.
Kind regard

Marija Derikuca
26/26A
Hythe Street
Mount Druitt
Nsw 21770
My e-mail : [protected]@yahoo.com.au

Anybody in Australia who has Telstra or Bigpond services connected should immediately cancel all services before they are extorted and defrauded by them, they will break the law to get out of contracts and will create debts in your name illegally if you complain about the problems, they don't return customers money or honor settlements they agree to, they charge whatever they like when they like and double dip on phone calls, they will never keep a promise or honor australian law.
Don't bother going to the T.I.O. about Telstra as they will ignore and dismiss evidence for Telstra, the T.I.O. is actually helping Telstra to defraud customers and break the law.
EVERYONE IN AUSTRALIA NEEDS TO CANCEL ALL SERVICES FROM TELSTRA & BIGPOND BEFORE THEY ALSO GET DEFRAUDED, EXTORTED AND SLANDERED BY THEM.
More to come later.

About two years ago my husband and i had two telstra mobile phones, telstra home phone and telstra wireless broadband, when we moved o the city we decided we had no further use for telstra's constant foolishness so we paid about $1500 to end our plans and at the same time we disconnected the home phone and the internet. Many months later the tennant in our previous home forwarded a telstra bill to me, of course they were still billing us for the disconnected services. When i rang telstra they were rude to me and told me the services were not disconnected and that i should have given them a forwarding address, i said why do you give a forwarding address to a company you dont want to deal with? At that point the woman offerred to reduce the outstanding amount to around $300 which she felt was more than generous, i felt it was still a rip off and said i would think about it, at this point i was assured the services were disconnected. I then got a bill again for around $800 with a threat of debt collection, so i rang and said i would take the $300 offer (Which i was previously told would remain available) but there seemed to be no record of the previous contact, or of my services being disconnected - after much holding and transferring a young man told me he needed a conflab with a supervisor who was away and would call me back the next day, which of course never happened. A couple of months later i recieved a letter from debt collectors for around $900, telstra now refuse to talk to me since it is in the hands of debt collectors now, the debt collectors asked me to email the saga to them so they could consider it, that was over a month ago and i still have had no resolution. Thanks telstra - way to go, give me a black mark on my credit rating as your final insult to me after years of torturing me with abysmal service, rude phone people and hours of time wasting.

Aftrer numerous problems with the service (not getting reception, then the Telstra software update corrupted our wireless card and then after posting items to telstra to be replaced they weren't replaced with the correct items) which were often 'fixed' with credits being applied to our account, we have endured one final injury.

After finally closing our account because the company charge $30-40Au more than other providers for an almost identical service, we requested the final bill be posted to us. We did not receive a bill for a month. After finally calling them to enquire, first they couldn't find us on their database and then when they did I was told we were in credit $62 and our account had been left on ebilling (emailed to the account closed by the service provider). Idiots! So we now have been told we are owed $62 and it will take 6-8weeks for a cheque to be posted to me. I am very dissapointed with this.

To all the customers who complain about Telstra, you want to try working for them.
Absolutely no training is given.
New staff are trained by current staff, some of which have only been in the job a short time.
This means noone is trained consistently to a standard.
And its not the managers fault as Area managers just dont listen to their constant pleas for help.
The staff turnover is huge but only for the staff that care.
If you see a long term employee at Telstra its because they are so bad they cant get a job elsewhere.
The worst offenders are the Area managers.
They have no idea how to manage their range of branches.
For example, each Qld area manager works out of Brisbane, travels only rarely, doesnt return calls from branch managers, doesnt give any direction and keeps information from regional branches.
If you want a problem solved ring the ombudsman. They fix things very quickly as Telstra get a fine every time they get a complaint. Hit them in the pocket. The number is in any phone book.

We had just moved into our rental house in North Brisbane & I was trying to connect the home phoneline. I call Telstra and everything is going fine, the girl is asking the normal questions etc. I mention Im from New Zealand so she offers me an international calling package for $10. I agree to take this offer and I ask her, "how much will it cost to call New Zealand per minute?". She says, "Hold on I'll find out for you". She puts me on hold for 7 minutes and never comes BACK. Like wtf? So I ring back Telstra and some other female answers from a totally different Telstra call centre. I say,
"Hi, I was on the line with a Telstra operator trying to connect a new home phoneline & she put me on hold & never came back".

She goes:
"Yeah..?"
Im thinking well are you gonna frickin help you idiot lol.Im like, WELL CAN YOU HELP ME I WAS TRYING TO CONNECT MY PHONE LINE AND GOT CUT OFF.
She thinks about it, & the rest of the convo went like this:
name?
I tell her
can you spell it?
I spell it
Address?
I tell her
Can you spell it?
I spell it
Suburb?
I tell her
Can you spell it?
WTF.
Trust me, my name or address are not exactly the most fanciest of names, their plain common english words.
I hung up.
Next day I try again. Let me remind you this is all just to connect my dam landline.
I get a female and shes really good, awesome communication skills. She offers me a cheaper international deal & states that I will only pay half the connection fee as I have a HEALTHCARE card. I tell her about all the hassle I had been through & she offers me one months credit on my first phone bill. I hang up happy as larry.
The bill comes in the mail and what do ya know.
FULL PRICE CONNECTION FEE
NO CREDIT has been applied to my first phone bill
&
NO INTERNATIONAL PACKAGE RECORDED ON MY ACCOUNT.
GODDAM.
I call Telstra and they have never heard of discounts on connection fees from a HEALTHCARE CARD only PENSION CARDS. This is after the operator who told me this, had gone on for a good 2 minutes telling me about how great it is to get discounts on a HEALTHCARE CARD. I get the international package added to my account and she apologizes, and thats it.
I can promise you I will never ever recommend TELSTRA to anyone. They are slack & deceiving, and it took all of this drama just to connect a simple landline connection. I had originally wanted to connect with OPTUS but they dont cover my area =(.
DO NOT RECOMMEND TELSTRA, way too complicated!

Hi,
I have tried to rectify this problem with telstra and get simpy niceties with no practical help.
I put in a disconnection and reconnection notice for mid January. They proceeded to disconnect my service, phone and internet on the 22nd December. They apologised and said it would be turned on by the 24th December but however it was not and then on another conversation (again using mobile phone) said there was a glich in the new system and orders of reconnections were not going through. After several phone calls and a phone complaint put in. The service was turned back on 31st December. I was without phone and internet for a week during the christmas period. I have 7 children and had to leave a mobile phone at home to use as the 'home phone' and take a mobile with mum to be able to keep in touch with older children etc. As you can imagine my subsequent phone bill was much higher than usual. When the complaints people rang they said they would give me a 'bonus' of $50 as a 'kind gesture by telstra'. I was told by someone else on one of the numerous calls to telstra to use the telstra mobile phone as the home phone and they would most likely cover costs...not so and now I have two massive bills for someones elses mistake. I was also told I would not be charged a reconnection fee but I also was charged that too. I have tried ringing again to get through to someone who could see that this is unreasonable but they all give you the stock answers. I was actually told the final bill over the phone but told to ring back in a day when I have the paper bill in my hand. Im not sure what difference that would make and I was given no substantial help with this valid complaint. Still trying to get some help but have no idea how to...the impression Ive been given is that it happened to a few people and those that complain loud enough or get on to the right people will get help. I heard of this happening to another lady and they credited her whole bill for the time that they had disconnected her but this is not done for me when it was exactly the same situation.
Where to from here?

30 years ago I stopped dealing with Telstra. My reasons were as follows.

Telstra is arrogant, incompetent, greedy, deceptive and in the main lazy and unresponsive to the people who pay exorbitant charges for a second rate service.
5 years ago I moved into a unit that hadn't had the phone on for some time. I went with a NZ ph. provider (AAPT) and have been pleased with hte service they give me but I have a problem:
I CAN'T ESCAPE THE IDJITS AT TELSTRA !
When the phone was installed
I had a chat with a Telstra sub-contractor who informed me the junction box was a total mess and should be totally replaced.
IN THESE LAST 5 YEARS TELSTRA HAS "FIXED" THIS SERVICE ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS WITH ALWAYS THE SAME FAULT !
The fault is HR (high resistance) caused through moisture.
Yesterday my phone and internet was working FINE until 2 Telstra techs came and "fixed" the problem yet again.
Today the phone doesn't work and the internet keeps dropping out.